


Candles

by Katalyna_Rose



Series: A Journey of the Soul (Salshira) [3]
Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Domestic Fluff, F/M, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-08
Updated: 2018-12-08
Packaged: 2019-09-14 00:35:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 871
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16902741
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Katalyna_Rose/pseuds/Katalyna_Rose
Summary: Salshira burns down all her candles in the night as she frets and plans and forgets what time it is, trying so hard to make sure she does the right thing and drowning in her worries. Sometimes Solas can remind her not to kill herself trying, and sometimes she lets him.





	Candles

There was so much to write down about the game. Salshira had already written everything she could remember, though details sometimes still came to her that she jotted down, and now most of it was just making her decisions and hoping that she could adequately predict the changes she was living. This task often consumed her to the point that she would miss meals, even forget to sleep, but it was so important to her that she play the game right that she kept doing it.

She hadn’t realized how long she’d been at it that night until her quill was plucked from her hand. “Hey!” she cried, looking up. Solas smiled at her tenderly and lightly tapped her nose with the feather in her quill.

“It’s late,” he observed as she scrunched her nose and swatted at him ineffectually. “Shouldn’t you be asleep?”

She glared at him and snatched her quill back. “Shouldn’t  _ you? _ ” she countered as she finished the thought she’d been in the middle of, then capped her ink.

“I  _ was, _ ” he told her, and she peered at him. He was, in fact, not wearing a shirt and his skin was slightly flushed and warm. She made a face. “I woke to relieve myself and found you still at your desk. Vhenan, it is nearing dawn. How many candles have you used tonight?”

She peered at the candles by her elbow curiously. She lit them in rotation so she wouldn’t use them all up at once, and of the four that the little candelabra could hold only one still had wick to burn. She waved a hand at the others to indicate that she’d used them up, and he sighed heavily. She shrugged somewhat defensively.

“Vhenan, what could possibly be so important that you deprive yourself of sleep?” he asked, peering at her journal. She let him look only because she was certain he couldn’t read it. She was writing in English, and the script was unintelligible to him and to everyone else in Thedas, as she’d tested with Leliana a couple of times. The alphabet was simply too different from the runic Trade script to be translated without help, and that had been her saving grace for keeping her notes secret.

“Secrets,” she told him honestly, and he sighed again, but this time it sounded sad. Per their agreement, he dropped the subject. He took her hand and massaged it for her, soothing the cramps that had begun as soon as her writing was interrupted.

“Come to bed,” he urged softly, bringing her hand to his lips to kiss her palm. “Surely your secrets can wait a few hours.”

She gazed at her journal and fretted a little more. She needed to plan their trip to the Arbor Wilds, make sure she was ready… But she was also exhausted, the page swimming before her eyes. She took a deep breath and let it out slowly, banishing her worries on the exhale. “Yeah, you’re right,” she told him, and let him draw her up from the chair. She’d gotten stiff after so many hours in the same position, and the knee she’d hurt the week before protested loudly. Rather than let her hobble toward the bed just a few feet away, Solas swept her into his arms. “Oh! Hey, I can walk!” she protested, blushing even as she clung to him.

“You are limping,” he observed casually as he carried her to bed.

“I’m stiff!” she told him, scowling, but he smiled at her as he laid her down.

“Let me care for you,” he murmured, then kissed her lightly. She sighed at him and flopped dramatically while he chuckled. She laid there like a rag doll while he undressed her, not even flexing a muscle to help him. “Pouting does not become you,” he observed as he struggled to get her pants off while leaving her smallclothes behind without her help.

“I’m gonna do it anyway,” she pouted at him, though a smile tried to tug at her lips. His own smile spoke of mischief as he simply stripped her when the smallclothes kept sticking to the pants. She squeaked before she could stop herself. She kept up the rag doll routine while he dressed her in one of the long night shirts she’d sewn from the scraps of other projects, kept it up as he extinguished the last of the candles, stoked the fire, and rejoined her in bed. She even kept it up as he dragged her over to him to lay her across his chest, but then she sighed and gave it up so that she could adjust her position and embrace him.

“Do not make a habit of this,” Solas told her wryly, and she muffled a giggle in his chest.

“No promises,” she quipped. “I like it when you baby me sometimes.” He groaned, and this time she didn’t bother to muffle her giggle.

“Go to sleep, vhenan,” he commanded, exasperated.

“Yes, sir, right away, sir,” she mumbled as she closed her eyes, smiling when she felt his chest vibrate with silent laughter as he kissed her hair. Sleep found her quickly, and she knew she would wake up in his arms.


End file.
